Bobby Labonte steady in Winston Cup chase

At midseason, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett closing in on points leader.

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 8, 2000

DAYTONA BEACH -- Bobby Labonte is 17 races from winning his first Winston Cup championship.

But in many ways, the 36-year-old with the azure eyes and short-cropped brown hair already is being treated like a winner.

The early morning commercial and photo shoots. The crowds parked outside his hauler in search of autographs, snapshots or just a quick conversation. The endless questions about what it's like to be leading at the halfway point of a Winston Cup season.

"It's a good place to be," Labonte said last week. "It's different, but it's not bad. I'd rather be there than anywhere else."

He has sought to reach the top since 1993, when he broke into the series.

Now, at the halfway point of his eighth season, two drivers who have combined to win eight Winston Cup titles in the past 14 seasons are stalking him.

Seven-time champ Dale Earnhardt (52 points behind) and defending champion Dale Jarrett (76 points behind) are one bad Labonte finish from taking the lead.

"I think you can really psych yourself out if you turn around and start looking at who is behind you, what their reputation is, what they've accomplished," said Jimmy Makar, Labonte's crew chief since 1995. "I think you can really get yourself in a bad state of mind if you start worrying about that.

"The fact of the matter is, we're ahead of them, we're doing better than them. That's what you need to focus on. They're chasing us."

Labonte was in a similar position nine years ago on his way to winning the Busch Grand National championship.

"It doesn't mean a whole lot today," he said.

A minor-league title may have seemed a career builder in 1991 but not now. Each week 42 other drivers are chasing him and the No. 18 Pontiac.

Labonte is careful not to look back as he steps into the second half, which begins Sunday with the race in which he recorded his worst finish last year, the New England 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

What has propelled Labonte into the points lead is what has made him a championship contender the past 31/2 seasons: consistency.

Labonte's only first-half win was in February at North Carolina Speedway, but nine top five and 11 top 10 finishes along with unmatched parity (12 different winners) have kept him in the lead since March5.

"It would be nice if we could be the one to break through, if anybody does," Labonte said. "We might not be the one. If it is Dale Earnhardt or Dale Jarrett or Jeff Gordon or Ward Burton, then as far as ourself, we've got to protect what we have and finish as good as we can."

As Labonte cruised through the first half, Earnhardt slowly emerged as a threat for the first time since 1995, when he finished second at season's end.

Earnhardt, who has won 75 races to Labonte's 13, has two wins and six top 10 finishes.

Defending champion Jarrett rebounded from a lackluster first quarter and is back in the hunt with one win and 10 top five finishes.

He knows he's not the only one gunning for Labonte.

The top five in the standings (Labonte, Earnhardt, Jarrett, Ward Burton and Jeff Burton) are separated by 213 points. All have won at least one race.

"Bobby Labonte has been there (in the hunt) to win ... a number of times," Jarrett said. "He's leading the points. Dale Earnhardt has had a couple of opportunities, and we've had some chances. I think what you're going to end up seeing probably is four or five guys with three or four wins. Four will probably lead the standings as far as victories go. Right now it's kind of a race for the championship, and I think there's probably 10 guys that can win that chase."

Labonte's rise began in 1997 and continued last year when Tony Stewart became the second Joe Gibbs Racing entry.

In the past 51 points races, with Stewart providing information, Labonte's team has won six races and finished in the top 10 37 times.

"It's very obvious the second car has helped us," Makar said. "It has influenced us, has given us the opportunity to gather a lot more information to base our decisions off of."

Should Labonte go on to win the championship, he and brother Terry would become the first brother duo to win titles in NASCAR's top series.

Bobby insists he hasn't turned to Terry, a two-time champion, for advice on how to negotiate a series-winning run.

"I was part of (Terry's) crew in 1984 when he won the championship," Labonte said. "Of course, I was only 20 years old. I wasn't racing at the time, so that didn't really help me out a whole lot."

Instead, he relies on his instincts learned from on-track success and failure.

From those, Labonte knows how quickly a bad performance can change a season. At this point last season, he was second in the standings behind Jarrett.

A wreck and a 38th-place finish at New Hampshire dropped him to fourth. Though he recovered, winning three races and finishing second in three in the final 16 events, Labonte really never posed a threat as Jarrett skipped off with the championship.

"To me -- and Bobby thinks the same way -- the points are nothing but an accumulation of how you do week in and week out," Makar said. "If you handle each week correctly, do the best you can, get good finishes, the points will come. A lot of folks are trying to hype up that we're leading the points right now. Well, my God, it's halfway through the season.

"Bobby is very good at focusing. He understands that if we do things right, if we have good fortune and don't make mistakes and don't have bad things happen out of our control, we'll be there at the end of the year and be in position to be able to contend for it. And that's all we're really hoping."

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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